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Yes. A slight “crisping” of the wrist as one plays a chord is in Salzedo training as well. I knew one Russian student who played with a circular preparatory movement of the thumb. I don’t know what school that is called, but it is specific to St. Petersburg. I can’t imagine if we had different schools in different cities.
I wanted to say to the person who implied that playing with relaxation is the ultimate goal, that to me, it is an intermediate goal, followed by playing with full strength and rich tone color, to create artistic effect. I think a lot of harpists today aim only for facility and maybe personal expression, at least that is how it appears to me. Those who can reach for it, should try to be artists as well. That probably means, at some point, to transcend one’s schooling, too, while being faithful to it.
There is a short, silent film of him playing with wicked abandon. It is unbelievable. I think it belongs to the American Harp Society. It is rarely shown.
Oh, I had a few offers like that I didn’t pay attention to. I was invited to perform in a revue in Provincetown right after my summer at Tanglewood. I said no, thinking only of what Miss Lawrence would say. I found out the next day that I came very close to being drugged and kidnapped to P’town to do the same, to wake up onstage in costume in the show. That would have been a mistake.
Thanks so much! Please post your review on Amazon. You’re a Stan-up guy! And, by the way, it is less than a penny a page, very high-quality paper stock, so I think it is very worth the money. Given what books run today, it is quite reasonable. And if you order two, you get free shipping. Order one for yourself
I think the more formal the appearance, the existence of an institution, having forms, an administrator or secretary, the better. That is hard to do when you don’t have a full setup like that.
Ellie, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Turina also did it a lot. It just pushes a button for me, I would have done a chord in fifths, not fourths.
Jim, I am fairly certain that on Zabaleta’s recording with Martinon, which is still the best-conducted performance I’ve heard, he is using free bowing in the strings, unless it is a reverb studio effect. It sounds like what Stokowski would do, and it adds a lot of color, while keeping the volume down. Do you know what I mean? It has a lot of extra shimmer.
Having heard the Concerto performed with piano, it made clear the classicism and elegance of the music with the orchestral color removed. That also swings the balance away from heavy percussion and so on. It is very linear music.
Harmonically, the piece is very interesting. The opening is similar to Salzedo’s writing, but Ginastera has contrasting chords at the same time in different registers. It’s similar to Rodrigo and Tailleferre, the what I call color-stream writing.
Not to knock the harps you do make, but why don’t you make Wurlitzer designs, Carl? Just wondering. And what makes their sound darker than Lyon & Healys of the same vintage?
I often think of playing the harp as choreography. Your finger touches the string and goes into your hand, but how you move, the way in which you do it and what you do after that affects the music so much!
Wow. Another harp work by Debussy! Just goes to show how unreliable Wikipedia is, it didn’t have it listed, or was it IMSLP I looked at? Same difference.
If you are talking about actual children, I think these harps would be too fragile. I would suggest selling them to a restorer, or investing in restoration and then selling them, recover your money in any case, and get a couple of sturdy newer harps for your lucky, lucky grandkids.
